Seamus Twomey

Seamus Twomey (5 November 1919-12 September 1989) was a Provisional IRA leader during The Troubles. While he was an anti-communist, Twomey supported revolutionary socialism and attacking wealthy civilians on class lines.

Biography
Seamus Twomey was born in Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland on 5 November 1919 to an Irish Catholic family, and he joined the IRA during the 1930s. He opposed Cathal Goulding's transformation of the IRA into a left-wing group during the 1960s, but he was one of the leaders of the leftist Provisional IRA when it was formed in 1969. Twomey led the Belfast Brigade at the time of Bloody Friday in 1972, and he was IRA Chief of Staff from March to October 1973 (when he was briefly arrested by the Garda Siochana) and again from June 1974 to 1977. Twomey supported bombing wealthy civilian targets on class lines, and he gave the go-ahead for the Kingsmill massacre. In 1986, he would support Gerry Adams and the PIRA during the split over abstentionism, remaining a Sinn Fein member and refusing to join the Republican Sinn Fein party. He died in 1989.